Dramatic year-to-year drop in Saskatoon homicides has no simple explanation: police

Dan Zakreski · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 04, 2025 11:42 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

In the archetypal weeks of April 2024, Saskatoon constabulary were scrambling to woody with a clump of homicides.

There had been 5 convulsive deaths successful the archetypal 3 months of the year, and then, successful a 2 week span successful April, 3 much homicides, including two successful a 24-hour span.

According to Sasktoon Police Service (SPS) statistics, 622 assaults were reported successful the metropolis betwixt January and March past year. This year, determination person been 628 successful the aforesaid period.

So portion the fig of assaults are close, large crimes investigators person handled lone 1 homicide this year. It happened successful January, and a fishy was arrested wrong hours.

Corey Lenius, a seasoned unit sergeant successful the large crimes unit, says spikes specified arsenic past year's are not an anomaly. 

"They're going to happen. They're volatile situations that occur, and you know, unfortunately, the large transgression portion is simply a reactive unit. We travel to it erstwhile it's happened already," helium said successful an interview.

"Many times it is simply a transgression of opportunity, a transgression of passion, a transgression of intoxicant and drug-related issues, and there's truly nary mode to foretell those homicides."

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Lenius says the SPS did instrumentality steps past twelvemonth to effort to woody with the rising fig of convulsive deaths, focusing connected known high-risk individuals, and creating a warrant enforcement portion to hunt for those wanted connected outstanding charges. It besides stepped up connection betwixt its transgression probe bureau and its patrol officers to absorption enforcement.

In the end, Lenius says, it can come down to luck and professionalism. Police, paramedics and firefighters are amended trained present successful life-saving techniques, truthful radical who person died from their injuries successful the past mightiness are present getting to  infirmary alive.

"When you look backmost to past year … those eight early ones really took a toll connected our portion and quality resources and, you know, intelligence wellness and each those things," helium said. "So yeah, we volition instrumentality this arsenic a triumph close now."